Saturday, December 1, 2012

Syria: 17 Lebanese Killed as They Infiltrate Syria’s Tal Kalakh

17 Lebanese Killed as They Infiltrate Syria's Tal Kalakh

At Least 17 Lebanese men were killed in Syria on Friday as they were infiltrating the country. Agence France Presse (AFP) said that the Lebanese men were killed in an ambush by Syrian army as they were infiltrating Syria's border area of Tal Kalakh.

A security source told AFP that the victims were fighting alongside the armed groups in Syria's Homs province.He said he was informed of the deaths of the men "who went to Syria to fight with the rebels and were all killed in a trap in Homs province," which borders Lebanon.

For its part, Sky News had said that 14 Lebanese people were killed as they were trying to enter Syria.

The men hail from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, including the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Mankoubeen, a security source told Lebanese English newspaper, Daily Star, which put the toll of the men killed on 20. The Lebanese daily quoted an activist from Tal Kalakh familiar with the operation, Talha Kleib, as saying that the Lebanese group was killed between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Friday.

He added that he believed the Lebanese group had been ambushed after it walked a good distance into Syrian territory, adding that he suspected that there may have been a tip off to the Syrian regime "because the guides with them knew the roads well."